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In this episode, Gustavo (Gus) Gutierrez, owner of GC Machining Solutions, takes us through his incredible journey from a 15-year-old who traded coffee for training at his first manufacturing job, to buying his own shop. Gus doesn't shy away from doing the "hard stuff", including moving a shop, implementing an ERP, and is currently managing a shift from 10% medical and dental device manufacturing to 80%. Wow.
Gus talks to Greg McHale about investing in education, making time for family, and the advice he gives his kids. He also shares his experiences across various roles in manufacturing, picking the right team members, building a strong company culture, and why technology is crucial to staying competitive. Gus's insights are a valuable resource for anyone in the industry.
SHOW NOTES:
- Got bit by the manufacturing bug at 15 when he would buy coffee for people and clean their machines if they would share some knowledge (5:53)
- A desire to learn something new every day led him to a lot of oddball jobs, but manufacturing just kept calling his name. (11:16)
- Working third shift and being a full-time electrical engineering student was a challenge, How Gus got it done with the help of a tape recorder! (13:29)
- Taking his daughter to IMTS starting when she was 9 really paid off in the long run (20:08)
- Taking a job he didn’t really want to Project Manage: moving 30 CNCs and 15 pieces of equipment. (23:39)
- Gus was at the top of his game as a plant manager with 325 people under him, but he wasn’t happy. So he followed a little whisper (27:55)
- The difference between a good employee and an engaged employee (29:28)
- Letting the team pick the new team members helps build a strong culture (33:20)
- Technology: It’s important to give people the right equipment and the right tools for success. (37:21)
- In medical devices, everything is critical, especially keeping the end-user top of mind (41:30)
- Advice to his impatient younger self: Change the glasses you use to view life, and you’ll get to this success. (45:07)
Creators & Guests
Host
Greg McHale
Greg founded Datanomix, a company delivering game-changing production insights and intelligence to manufacturers of discrete components. Datanomix was founded on the premise that the 4th industrial revolution would require turnkey products that integrate seamlessly with how manufacturers work today—not clunky workflows that depend on human input or complex data extraction. He brings enterprise data skills to a market ripe for innovation. Greg has held engineering leadership positions at several venture-backed companies and is a graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
What is Manufacturing Mavericks?
Manufacturing Mavericks aren’t afraid to shake things up and stand out from the crowd. They are embracing the best tools and technology to showcase world-class American manufacturing and grow their business.
Join Greg McHale, founder of Datanomix, as he sits down with these exceptional people to hear their stories and explore the important lessons they learned along the way. Listeners can gain valuable insights they can use in their own facilities to improve their bottom line.
Greg: Welcome to this episode of Manufacturing Mavericks. I’m your host, Greg McHale. As the founder of Datanomix, I’ve had the privilege of visiting hundreds of shops all across the country, and in those visits, I have met some of the most incredible and innovative people in this industry. Our goal with the Manufacturing Mavericks podcast is to highlight those leaders, those mavericks of manufacturing, who are innovating not just with technology, but with culture, people, and process too, so we can all learn not just what they do, but why they do it. We will dig into what got them into manufacturing, what fires them up to go to work every single day and pour their blood, sweat, and tears into keeping the manufacturing dream alive in our country. With that, I am honored to introduce today’s guest on Manufacturing Mavericks. Welcome to the show, Gus, how are you doing today?
Gustavo: I’m doing well. How are you, Greg?
Greg: I am doing very well. And Gus, I have been looking forward to this episode for quite some time, since I met you out at your shop a few months ago. Just a very impressive operation and a very impressive story that I am really excited to be digging into here. So, why don’t we start out, Gus, with telling us about your current shop and a little bit of the background there?
Gustavo: Yeah. So, we got a 20,000 square foot shop. We have 21 CNCs, a mixture of five-axes mill, wire EDM, citric passivation, laser marking. The bulk of the equipment is going to be Swiss lathes. We have 12-millimeter to 38-millimeter Swiss. We got quite a variety of equipment here to be able to satisfy any manufacturing requirements from our customers.
Greg: So 20,000 square feet. That sounds like actually a lot of equipment for the size of that facility, and a lot of different capabilities. So, what industries are you serving there, Gus?
Gustavo: When I purchased the business about two years ago, the primary industry that was being served was industrial. My background for the past 29, 30 years has been in dental and medical device, so we’re transitioning over to doing more of that. In March of this year, we were certified with our ISO 13485, so that’s going to lead us down the path of doing some more than medical and dental work. So, right now it’s, under 10% of the work that we do right now is medical and dental, but we want to continue to grow that side of the business and be closer to 70 to 80%.
Greg: Oh, wow. So, quite a transition going on there.
Gustavo: Yes, absolutely. We know that that’s the market that not only myself but my core team members have experienced with. We want to continue to work in the space where we feel the most comfortable.
Greg: So, you mentioned decades of experience in manufacturing in medical, ultimately leading up to the purchase of your own business. Let’s go back a little bit in time, Gus. When did the manufacturing torch first get lit for you? What inspired you to get into manufacturing?
Gustavo: So, manufacturing wasn’t actually in my scope, right? When I was 14, 15 years old, I applied for Sears at the shoe department. And I got the job after a couple of days of the interviews, the interviewing process. And I went home, as most families do, they share that kind of information at the dinner table, so I shared that with my parents. And I remember being so excited to tell them that I landed my first job.
And as soon as I shared that, with my dad specifically, he said, “I was not aware that you wanted to work. Why don’t you quit that job tomorrow, and you come work with me?” My dad being, you know, a longtime welder wanted me to work in manufacturing. He was always of the mindset, “I’m always going to lead you down the right path, so if I ask you to do something, it’s because I know best.” The very next day, I had to go to Sears and put in my two weeks notice before I even started.
Greg: You gave two weeks, though?
Gustavo: I did. I can I work for two weeks. And they said, “No, you haven’t even worked a day. You can, you know”—
Greg: [laugh] .
Gustavo: But I was also learning a valuable lesson there. I was learning not to be afraid to have a conversation, even uncomfortable conversations. One of the many lessons that my father taught me is how to have uncomfortable conversations with people, at a very young age.
Greg: Wow.
Gustavo: So, a week later I went to interview at his job. Really, it was just a courtesy because the job was mine. My dad had a long-standing relationship with the owners of that company, and they were very eager to bring in a younger version of what they thought my—what my dad was. So, I started working there at the age of 15. I was doing shipping and receiving, doing some deliveries, and occasionally I get to sweep the floor and, chamfer some material.
For the first three to six months, that was kind of what I was doing, day-in and day-out. After school, I would get to work around 4:30, and I clock out around nine o’clock. So, I spent, the three to six months doing that, and eventually I got kind of excited about what are those guys doing over there in the corner, right? I see him cutting material on a [Hardinge] lathe, or I see him on a [bridge board] . What is that about?
I slowly started to transition over there. I was not allowed to jump on the machines, but I was allowed to buy some coffee. So, I would occasionally buy—you know, I went to a laundromat, swapped out a $5 bill for a bag of coins. At that time, coffee was 25 cents a cup. I noticed everybody had coffee all day long.
So, I would stop by, buy somebody a coffee, and say, “Hey, what are you making here? How does this work? How do you do this? You know, how do you get that, whatever that is”—I didn’t know it was a turning insert at the time—“To do whatever it is shape you’re making?” With these guys that have been in the business for 20, 30 years, they weren’t too excited to hang out and talk to me, but if I exchanged their time for a cup of coffee, and I’ll clean your machine, give me two minutes of something, they started to share some of the knowledge with me. So, I started to get a better understanding of what manufacturing was. And that really was what sparked my interest in manufacturing.
Greg: And it sounds like a very fortunate environment to be in where, number one, a culture where you’re going to go and buy somebody a cup of coffee, and they’re going to invest time in you, especially as such a young person, right? You could easily picture an environment where everyone’s just blowing the kid off. You know, “Hey, I’m trying to run my parts here, kid. Leave me alone.” But it sounds like that was a pretty open and engaging culture.
Gustavo: You know, the pay tool was really the cup of coffee. They’re saving 25 cents on that round. And they’re saving a few minutes on not having to clean their equipment. Another good lesson my dad taught me is to be respectful of people’s time, so if I ever showed up in front of somebody and asked them a question, specifically if it was something that I would need in the future, I always showed up with a notebook and a pen. I wanted to demonstrate that, “Hey, I am paying attention. Hey, I’m going to write it down so that I don’t have to ask you again.” They appreciated that kind of stuff.
And I got a lot of good information that you wouldn’t get unless you were doing it for a very long time. There was a gentleman there who used to run the Hardinge lathe, and everybody said that he was holding up the machine most of the time because he always had his hand on the machine. I remember going one day with a cup of coffee—he liked his black—and [I asked him] , “Why do you hold on to the machine? Everybody criticizes you about that.” And he said, “Why don’t you put your hand on the machine, Junior, and I’ll show you what’s going on.”
I put my hand on the machine, and I can feel, the RPMs on the lathe. He intentionally broke the turning insert while I was in the [unintelligible] , and I felt that vibrational difference. And he said, “Did you feel that?” And I said, “I did. What was that?” He’s like, “I just broke the tool. I hold the machine, so I know when my tool breaks, and I can stop it, put in a new insert, and rerun it again.”
Greg: Wow.
Gustavo: That’s when it all connected the dots for me, right? Here’s a guy who actually doesn’t care what anybody else thinks. He’s doing what he’s doing to make sure he’s producing good components, and he doesn’t have a lot of scrap.
Greg: That’s incredible.
Gustavo: Yes, very, very much so. Even now, if I have an apprentice here that we’re training, we still talk about that. Because the harmonics doesn’t change. You can put your hand on a Swiss machine or on a mill, and you can feel some of those harmonics through your hand.
Greg: But a valuable lesson to get so early on, really, connection to your work, connection to the quality of your work, pride in your work, even if to other people, they think, “Oh, he’s a weirdo. He’s leaning on his machine all day. He’s got his hand on his machine.” Actually, no. He’s being a perfectionist.
Gustavo: Correct. But didn’t waste time explaining it to anybody unless you actually approached them and asked them, “What are you doing?” Right?
Greg: Right. Right, and you started with the assumption that he must know what he’s doing. There must be a good reason. What is there that I can learn from that?
Gustavo: Correct. Having that humility to know that, hey, I can learn from anybody, and I don’t know anything in comparison to these guys, carrying that same level of humility throughout my career has helped me to learn new things, a lot of new things, things that I might not have been privileged to learn.
Greg: What you’re talking about, here’s the combination of humility and curiosity, which you know, the humility to clean someone else’s machine, to buy them coffee, and the curiosity to say, what is it they know that I don’t? What is it that they’re doing that could help me get better at what it is that I aspire to do? I mean, what a great foundation so early on, things that you’ll never get taught in any school.
Gustavo: That’s correct.
Greg: So, Gus, did you stay with that company for an extended period of time? Or where did you go from there?
Gustavo: I think I was there about eight months, nine months, something like that. It got really difficult to work under my father. My father was a perfectionist in his own right. He was the primary welder there, and he really wanted me to shine as his son, right? “I want to make sure that you show up 15 minutes early, you’re leaving 15 minutes after, you’re making sure that you’re doing everything to the best of your abilities,” and as a teenager, that was a lot of pressure for me.
Greg: Sure.
Gustavo: I decided, you know, Dad, I like that I got to work with you this amount of time. I really want to explore some different things in my life. I want to make sure that this is actually what I want in life. After leaving there, I spent some time doing a lot of oddball jobs. I did some roofing, I did some construction, a lot of little different things, but in the back of my mind, I always was—manufacturing is what I like. I enjoy doing other stuff, and I want to continue to expand. Every day I want to learn something new. So, I’ve been curious my entire life. And I explored all these oddball jobs, and manufacturing just kept calling my name.
In 2001, I joined a company called HuFriedy. They primarily do dental instruments. When I got back on a machine, I was very excited. And this was my first experience on a Swiss machine because everything was kind of manual lathe, manual mill. Now, I got to work at a place where they have CNC equipment, with a computer and, wow, this is totally different, right?
I was working there as an operator for three to six months. After three to six months, I was able to demonstrate my eagerness to learn, my eagerness to do more, to grow more. Where can I expand my skills? I used to sit in the lunchroom reading the operating manual for the machine, just because I wanted to understand that equipment, so when we got an alarm on the machine, I knew what could be the possible triggers for that alarm. I knew how the movements of that machine, so I can have better conversations with the people on the floor, going back to respecting people’s time, right?
Instead of asking them, “How do you do this?” I want to say, “Hey, here’s what I discovered on my own. Does this make sense, or does this not make sense?” I always found that I get better results if I approach something with some background. I was there for another six months doing that as an operator, and eventually I got asked if I wanted to lead the third shift team. They didn’t have a third shift at the time. I wanted to lead the third shift team at night, and I would have three other crew members that would work with me. So, that was exciting. I was, “Absolutely. Let’s do it.”
Then I started working a third shift. Meanwhile, in the morning—again because I was eager to continue to expand my knowledge—I said, “Well, I’m working at third shift. I feel pretty energetic in the morning. I’m going to sign up for school across the street at the DeVry University, and go for some electrical engineering.” Did the third shift. They had a bathroom where you can actually take a shower there at HuFriedy. I would take a shower in the morning, and then I would head to class. Full-time student at DeVry University for electrical engineer.
Greg: Wow. So, you got off a third shift at what time?
Gustavo: Seven o’clock. My first class was around 8, 8:15.
Greg: Wow. And then attended a full day worth of classes?
Gustavo: Yeah.
Greg: When did you sleep?
Gustavo: You know, usually between the time I got off, and I I was across the street, so I had about 45 minutes to take a quick nap. It was a lot easier at the beginning. As we get a couple of years in, it became a lot more difficult. I used to tell my instructor, I told them exactly what was going on. “I have a tape recorder on my desk. I work at third shift. If I happen to doze off, I’m not trying to disrespect your class. I work a third shift. But this is so valuable to me that I’m recording it. I have a 45, 50-minute drive home after this, and I listen to the recording on my way home.” So, he was—it was usually my first and second professor that I was still trying to catch up on my sleep there. They were very understanding.
Greg: It’s th—there’s that humility meets curiosity again.
Gustavo: Right. We were able to do that, and after I graduated from there, I said, well, I want to continue to do more stuff. So, I joined Lincoln Tech Institute for automotive technology in 2004, 2005. It had nothing to do with manufacturing, right, but I wanted to better understand, if I needed to fix my car, how do I do that? It was more of a curiosity thing for me. So, I completed that—it was a one-year course—I completed that course in automotive technology. I had that under my belt.
I got some jobs, some offerings for, in order to go work at different dealerships. Manufacturing was still something that was interesting for me, but now I can also now fix my car if I needed to. A lot of that happened because in my childhood, I used to spend a lot of time in the garage, helping my dad with whatever vehicle he happened to be working on. And I got to tell you, Greg, I had no idea what the heck he was doing. I was handing him—sure I was handing him the screwdriver or wrench, all the [unintelligible] —
Greg: [laugh] . “Get me that.” Yeah.
Gustavo: —holding the flashlight, but I never knew exactly what he was doing. After I graduated from Lincoln Tech, I had a better understanding, so now when my dad, and I would work on a vehicle, I actually could contribute something. Did that. After completing that, I went to work for another company, and that was my introduction to—this was, like, 2006—that was my introduction to medical devices. They did a lot of medical devices for a lot of the bigger OEMs, Johnson & Johnson, Wright Medical, those kinds of players.
And when I started working at that company, I realized that, making dental instruments has its complexity, but when you go into GD&T and other tolerancing that I wasn’t familiar with, it was a lot more difficult for me to understand what was going on in print. So, I took a blueprint reading class, and then I took a GD&T class on my own. Came back, then told the plant manager, “Hey, I took these courses. I don’t know if you guys would cover the costs, but here’s”—it wasn’t a large amount of money, and they did; the covered the cost. And then I said, “Is there something else that the company can provide for me to continue training?”
And that was the first time I got sent out to Citizen training for an operator, then programming, and then some maintenance. So, I started taking those courses when I was at that facility. I was there for about five or six years. I started as an operator, transitioned into a setup person, and then a line lead. I started to do some programming on the equipment. So, that was very exciting for me.
But again, I wanted to do a little more. I was kind of tapped out there with my growth potential. I decided to make a leap. And I had been connected with one of the manufacturers for the Swiss equipment for Star. And I made a phone call; they were eager to interview me.
I was interviewed, and I got hired at Star as an applications and service engineer in 2008. And was there for about a year. That was probably one of those places where I learned the most, Swiss equipment because I got to work on them, I got to program them, I got to install them, the whole nine. So, that was really exciting times for me. Then, with having some small children, traveling became pretty difficult.
Greg: Sure.
Gustavo: I remember, my daughter was five or six at the time, and she called me once and told me, “Hey Daddy, are you going to come home this weekend? I really want to see you.” And that just broke my heart. So, I decided to transition out of Star for that reason. I wanted to spend more time with my daughter, specifically, see her grow up.
So, after that, I landed a job and in Kenosha as a manufacturing engineer. That started my curiosity with design and modeling, and using CAD/CAM to be able to program. So, I took a couple of courses again there. I took some SolidWorks courses at a place in Kenosha called Gateway Technology College. I got my certificate in SolidWorks, and then, I asked to get sent out for some CAD/CAM training, and I received that training as well.
So, every job that I landed, what was the opportunity for me to learn something? What was the opportunity for me to grow my skill a little bit more? Now, I always had the blessing and privilege of being given those opportunities to continue to do that. Which is, as I talked to other people in industry, doesn’t always happen.
Greg: One of the consistent themes that I’m hearing in your story, Gus, is that at every step of the journey, you perpetually invested in your own education and training, I mean to a level that’s not just, “Hey, let me go get this one thing.” It’s like when you finished with that, what’s next? What’s next? What’s next? And for younger folks who might be listening and thinking about getting into manufacturing, and they hear that, that’d be like, “Man, did Gus have no life? Did he have no hobbies?”
How did you make that work? How did you invest so much in that education, and that knowledge? You talked about, your younger daughter, getting into the, what, about the mid-2000s, right? So, early-2000s it sounds like is when you started a family. So, how did you make that all work?
Gustavo: A lot of conversations, Greg.
Greg: [laugh] .
Gustavo: A lot of conversations. A lot of forward-thinking, right? It’s painful now, but it won’t be so painful later on.
Greg: And what do you mean by that?
Gustavo: We won’t get to see each other as much, I won’t get to spend as much time with you, but you know, when I do have time with you, I’ll make sure that it’s quality time. When my daughter was maybe second or third grade, we had this kind of routine. Every Wednesday, you know, maybe the second or third Wednesday of every month, I would take the day off. I would use my vacation for that specific reason, to take the day off, pick up my daughter from school, and take her either to the planetarium, the Shedd Aquarium, the zoo, spend the day with her. That became such a routine for us for years. We did that so that I was spending time with her.
It wasn’t that I didn’t do it on the weekends, but the weekends were usually catch-up for me, right? I’m going to catch up on some homework, I’m going to catch up on some things at home, I’m going to catch up on something with my vehicle. So, it was really that once a month, right? That’s 12 days out of the year that I was investing time with her. When I have conversations with her now when she says, “Dad, I remember going to the Shedd Aquarium. I remember seeing this,” or, “I remember doing that.” I used to take her to IMTS with me, since she was nine years old.
Greg: [laugh] . Really?
Gustavo: She’s been around manufacturing for a very long time. On the weekends, if I needed to go in, one of the places I worked as a manufacturing engineer, if I needed to go in on the weekends, I had a conversation with the owner. I said, “Can I bring my daughter?” “Yeah, go ahead.” So, she would sit in my office, I’d go help out on the floor. And I’d have her looking at prints, and she always, kind of—she wasn’t excited about it, but I think she was more excited about spending time with me. At least that’s what I tell myself.
Greg: Sure [laugh] sure. So, is she still in manufacturing? Is she still curious about it?
Gustavo: She works with me here at the company.
Greg: Oh, that’s great.
Gustavo: Yeah. And we still go to IMTS. She’s slightly more excited about it now than she was before. She used to really worry about, Dad, how come you have to stick your head inside every machine that we [unintelligible] ?
Greg: [laugh] . And put your hand on it? Why do you do that?
Gustavo: Right. But she understands that that’s a passion for me. So, it’s that kind of balance, right? Now, I have two boys, a 15 and a 17-year-old, and I bring them in the morning. They’re on spring break, so I bring them in the morning to sort parts, inspect parts, do something, to get them excited about manufacturing, too.
I always tell my kids, you don’t have to dream like I dream, but you should have a dream, right? This is my dream, this is what I want to do. I’m just giving you options. Here’s some potential. If you want to pursue it, that’s great. If not, let’s go figure out what you want to dream about, and let’s help you get there.
Greg: What a great piece of advice. And no better way than to have a front row seat to your dream, but also without the pressure of exactly as you said it. This is my dream. It doesn’t have to be yours, but you got to have one.
Gustavo: Yeah. Exactly right. Going back to, kind of, the timeline of my career, I ended up at another medical device place that was—I was actually not excited to interview at that place. And I remember the recruiter telling me, “It’s under new management. They’re new owners. I think it’s a great opportunity for you to go check it out.”
So reluctantly, I interviewed. The place was not—it didn’t show very well. But they’d said, “We’re looking to move the facility in a few months.” And I said, “Oh, do you have a project manager for that?” They said, “No, we don’t.” And I said, “Well, I’d like to come on board and, it gives me a few months to kind of demonstrate what my capabilities are, and if we’re at a good point there, and you guys are interested, I would love to be the project manager for the facility move.” And they agreed.
So, here was an opportunity for me to move a facility, right, to be in charge of that. So, when the time came, they agreed that I can be the project manager for that project. We moved the facility in October. We finalized the move, like, an April, May with zero interruption to service. 30 CNC machines, about 15 auxiliary pieces of equipment, and no interruption to our customer. So, that was very rewarding.
Greg: Impressive. Yeah.
Gustavo: It wasn’t [unintelligible] the team, right? The team made it happen. But I got to work on all the documentation for that, to make sure that we were [sharing] that. Since that facility was ISO 13485, there was validations to machines that needed to happen, there was a report that need to get sent out to customers, there was a lot—there was tracking of schedules that needed to sent with customers. So, all of that, a group of people that we work together to achieve that and send that out. So, it was very rewarding at the end to sit back and see that building slowly start to fill up.
We were moving up about two to three machines once a week, so the coordinating have the power, the air, the technicians to come in and install them, the setup guys. You were basically running two facilities, so a lot of times, there was—you know, I had to go drive to our other facility, which was 30 minutes away and pick up tooling because we didn’t ship the right tool or, some workholding. But at the e—very long hours, weekends, but at the end, to sit there and just see it fill up, and see everything running was very rewarding. And I got to put another project under my belt of, I moved to a facility.
Greg: Where in that journey, Gus, did the seed get planted for, you know what, maybe I want to have my own shop someday.
Gustavo: That was always in the back of my mind. After the facility move, I said, “All right, so I’ve done some engineering and done some programming, I’ve done some setup, I’ve done all these things. What do I need to kind of reach that next level?” We did the facility move. I remember walking by—and this guy’s a mentor of mine now, right; he was the previous owner of that company—remember walking by his office, and now he was the sales manager there, and I overheard him having a conversation with one of the customers.
What stood out to me is that he told the guy, “I know that PO is sitting on your desk, probably on the top right? Why don’t you sign it and send it over to me? We can make those parts for you. You don’t have to think about it again. Get that out of your mind. Let me take care of it for you.” So, I followed up at the end of the day. And I said, “Hey, did you ever get that PO?” He’s like, “Absolutely.” That’s when I knew, here’s a guy I got to hang out with to learn how to do some sales.
Greg: Yeah.
Gustavo: So, I remember telling him, a couple days later, I said, “Do you mind if I just sit in the corner of your office and listen to you on a call?” He’s like, “Sure, not an issue.” And I said, “I just want to learn how you do what you do.” Said, “Absolutely, Gus. Why don’t you go ahead and hang out. I’ll tell you when I have some calls with customers, and let’s see where that goes.”
After a few months of, sitting there periodically and listening to him. I said, “Does it make sense if I can take some of this off your plate? Can I make some of these calls?” at the time, I was already an operations manager there. “Does it make sense for me to, take on some of this work from your plate?”
And he said, “You can. I’ll give you some of the lower accounts and let’s give it a go.” So, I started doing some of that. After doing some of that for a few months, I said, “Can I take on some more?” And by the way, “Can I take on a bigger role?” So, they promoted me. I started there as an engineer, then I was the project manager, transferred over to operation manager, and I ended my career there as a director of operations. And now I was helping with some of the sales.
I wasn’t getting any commission from any of the sales, but I was okay with that because it was for a bigger goal. At that point, that’s when I started to really convince myself, I think I can start my own business one day. I’m starting to get that foundation for everything that’s needed, in my mind, for a business owner. So, when I left there, I went to another facility in the interim, but now I was really looking, right? What does that look like? What does owning my own business really look like?
I was a plant manager at another facility for about five months. I was getting paid the most I’ve ever gotten paid in my career. I had 325 employees that reported to me, and I was sitting in my office saying, “I’m not happy, but I also don’t want to go at this alone.” There was a boy there who I spent a lot of time with, and I said this guy has the right attitude, he has the right work ethic, his vision of what the future looks like, is very similar to my vision. So, I said, “Hey, do you want to go start a company somewhere?” And he said, “Let me get back to you.” A couple days later, comes back and says, “Yeah, I think so.” Mind you, I’ve known this guy for five months.
Greg: [laugh] . How did you know to ask him?
Gustavo: I think, Greg, when you feel something—at least with me—when you feel it, that little whisper, that little feeling inside of you, I always follow that. There’s something bigger there. Every time I follow that, there’s always something bigger. But I spent a lot of time talking to him. We hung out a couple of times after work. I got to meet his family. I got to see everything about him, right, and the same with him.
So, I knew that, hey, his family is solid, I can see how his kids are very respectful, I can see how he is as a person to the employees. This is a really good fit. He fits my personality. One of the things that we always talk about, even now, is we want to have a place where the culture is better than a lot of other places, right? And not to compare myself, but we want people to want to come to work.
In my mind, there’s a difference between a good employee and an engaged employee. And I believe—truly believe—that culture makes an employee engaged. Because you can have a very good employee: punches in and out, does what he has to do, but a happy, engaged employee is going to do that much more, right? They’re going to do the right thing, even when you’re not around. And that’s the kind of culture that I envision; that’s the culture that he envisioned as well. That’s how I knew early on by our conversations that he would be the best fit.
I had opportunities in the past, either take over a business or start a business, but I didn’t have the right partner. And I knew that I really needed a partner so that I can take care of a portion of the business, right, some of the sales, some of the [unintelligible] conversations, some of the engineering, and then have somebody else out on the floor, working on process improvements, programming, setups, all that stuff, training. It was the right fit for us. So, from that conversation, a month-and-a-half later, we were already visiting the facility that we wanted to investigate purchasing. And that led to me quitting my job. I remember calling my wife that morning, and saying, “Honey, I think I’m ready to start my business.” And my wife’s response was, “Does that mean you’re coming home early, so I can start dinner?”
Greg: [laugh] . What a great question.
Gustavo: How supportive, right?
Greg: Yeah. What a great question.
Gustavo: From there, I quit my job. I wasn’t taking any pay for several months. I wanted to see, all right, is this the right place for me to purchase? And ten months after quitting my job, we closed the deal on the purchase of the business, and that was almost two years to the date. On the 30th of this month, it would be two years. So, here we are.
Greg: Wow. So, the first facility you looked at, that’s the one you ended up purchasing?
Gustavo: We looked at a lot of empty spaces. The vision was originally, let’s start off with one or two machines, but as we had more discussions, how much output are we going to have for one or two machines? And is it right for me to moonlight, right? Work at my regular job, and then, after hours go somewhere else? That didn’t sit well with me?
Greg: Sure. You wanted to be all in.
Gustavo: Yeah. I went all-in. And very supportive, my entire family was very supportive of the whole process. So, when you have the support, the family support that I have, there’s very little fear in doing anything because you know that there’s so many behind you that are there supporting.
Greg: That’s, I think, one of the most important points so far. If you’re an entrepreneur, as you are, every entrepreneur that’s honest about what it takes recognizes that their family is often the largest investor in the endeavor. Even if you know the entrepreneur is the one working 80 hours a week, the family is trading off an awful lot for that entrepreneur to be able to live out their dream.
Gustavo: Exactly right.
Greg: So, GC Machining Solutions was born almost two years ago to the day. I think that’s fantastic. That’s good serendipity there, Gus. GC Machining Solutions today, you talked about the facility, you talked about how you’re making that transition into medical. You talked a little bit about some of the critical elements of your culture just a few minutes ago, but you know, some summarize for me what you look for in team members?
You talked about picking your business partner, there’s that whisper, there’s that gut feel. So, I can tell that sort of a similar process is going to be important for you when choosing team members to become part of your culture. So, talk about that a little bit, and what you look for, and what makes great team members for you.
Gustavo: I actually, I allow the team to pick the new team member.
Greg: Really?
Gustavo: I might interview somebody over the phone, or I might have a conversation with them if they show up here for an interview. And then I’ll say, “Hey, I’ll pass you on to so-and-so,” have a few minutes to talk to the person. Or I might say, “Hey, do you mind hanging out for an hour? Let’s go see, I’ll show you some of the product we make, see how familiar you are with some of this product, and then I’ll leave you with so-and-so, and you will have a conversation as to, how they got that job running, or what are some of the issues they encountered, and provide some feedback.” Just having these natural conversations with people, you get to really see who they are, right, and what they potentially can bring to the table. And you’re also allowing them at that point to say, “Hey, here’s a place where you can share your ideas, and it’s okay.”
Greg: So, you really bring them right out to the shop floor, right into a real-life situation?
Gustavo: Yeah. I found that that is the best way, right? We can talk about everything in your resume, but I don’t want to have something that I’m reading from, right, that, “Oh, tell me your experience. Tell me about you.” I really want to have an organic conversation.
I really want to get to know the person, and then I want the team to get to know the person a little bit. So, I always say, prepare yourself for about an hour, or two hours of conversation, and if you can make that, that’d be great so that we can really get to know you. And you get to know us. See if it’s a fit for you.
Greg: Fantastic approach. Like you say, no better way to get to know what is a person really about, where’s their passion? Where’s their personality? Where’s their approach? Where’s their, team chemistry? Other than, throwing them in the tank, right?
Gustavo: Well, the other thing you get with that, Greg, is, there’s been some occasions where I interview somebody, and I said, “Hey, I know you’re coming in for a shipping opportunity, but you would be a good fit for our Swiss department, or our milling department,” you know? Having those conversations, you can uncover some of that as well. “I know you’re applying for this position, but are you interested in—here’s some opportunity, maybe, for some growth down the line. Are you interested in that?” And then, let’s work towards that.
Greg: Definitely. And I think the other thing I love about your approach is it’s a two-way street. The potential employee gets out there and says, “Hey, you know what? This shop, really, this jives with my personality. I love how people work here. I love how people communicate here. I love how there’s this form of, whatever, accountability or instructions, or whatever the case may be.”
So, it’s not just, like, it’s this one-sided thing, you’re really trying to make sure that the employee feels good—a potential employee feels great about it, the team feels great about it, and ultimately, that’s a nice filter for you, as the owner, to have high confidence that everybody’s making a good decision, right?
Gustavo: Right. Now, I don’t believe in dictatorship, right? I don’t believe in: here’s a guy hired; go train him. I believe in the organic feel. “Hey, remember, the guy we talked to a couple of weeks ago? I’m thinking about making them an offer. How do you feel about that?” All team members, from the person that, takes care of my polishing and shipping to my business partner. All team members get to have an input on, “Hey, this is what I’m thinking. What do you guys think?” We’re small enough to be able to do that, but as we continue to grow, I want to continue to maintain those kinds of conversations.
Greg: Super important, right? You’ve made it clear that that’s one of the foundational elements of your culture, and not doing that, just because you get too big or you’re trying to go faster, well you know what the trade-off is there, right? If you stop doing the thing that makes you great, it gets harder to stay great.
Gustavo: It does. And I’ve been privileged enough to work at many facets of manufacturing, so I know what it is where the guy that’s chamfering the material doesn’t get to say anything, right? His opinion is not valid. I know what that feels like.
Greg: Right. So, great dive-in on the people aspect there. How about technology, Gus? How do you see technology as part of the culture?
Gustavo: It’s important to give people the right equipment, the right tools for success. I can’t expect an employee to—but they often surprise me—I can’t expect them to make miracles with older equipment. So, we’ve invested in a lot of new equipment. We have also invested in training my core team members in some of the preventative maintenance, helping them understand, let’s fix it, or let’s repair it, or let’s look at it before it’s actually an issue. My servicing background allows me to have those conversations, that allows me to train them in some of that.
And now I go out to the floor, and a guy will be like, “Hey, I’m changing the amplifier on the machine.” Which, great. I believe in sharing everything I know with anybody out there so we all have the same information. And that’s also a cultural thing, right? Being able to share information, nobody’s going to take anybody’s position away, but the more we all know, essentially, the less we all do.
Greg: Right.
Gustavo: My feeling in manufacturing, it’s a pull system. We always want to pull people, right? We want to help that guy grow into—possibly—your role, so you can move on to a different role, right? If not, pull them so they’re at the same level, and now you have better conversations, you’re more efficient, and get more accomplished.
Greg: Sure. So new equipment, an important piece of technology investment. How about systems, ERP, inspection? I know, you’re doing a lot of investment related to your transition to the medical industry as well.
Gustavo: I was part of a—at one of the organizations I worked, I was part of an ERP launch. We were using an older ERP system. We weren’t actually using it completely; we were using a lot of spreadsheets to manage the day-in and day-out stuff. And it took about three tries, and about two-and-a-half years to get that implemented. So, early on, when I took over the business, I knew that ERP, even though we were very small at the time, was something that I wanted to tackle early on. And it’s only going to get more difficult as you create more part numbers and generate—you know, start getting more customers.
Greg: Yep.
Gustavo: So, we took on the ERP project early, and we launched it at the beginning of this year. While we were launching the ERP, we were also working on our ISO 13485. We invested in hiring some folks to come in and do some of our gauging, an inspection person, and then a scheduler-planner, and shipping and receiving person, trying to fill in all the gaps where we would need somebody to have an efficient way of managing the ERP system, and obviously, maintaining the ISO 13485 requirements.
Greg: And ERP, you started beginning of this year, so really, year-and-a-half into the journey of the company. And I’m guessing that was also critical in you being able to achieve that all-important ISO certification.
Gustavo: It was. We started prior to the launch. We were training for about six months, and eight months prior to the beginning of the year, we started the process with the ERP system.
Greg: Awesome. And as you make that transition into medical, what are some of the other investments that you’re anticipating to ultimately grow your operation into the future state that you have in mind? Give us a little bit of foreshadowing there.
Gustavo: Yeah, you can’t make what you can inspect. So, we’re working on a CMM. Right now, I have a couple of places that rent out CMM services, so we have a way of checking it. But bringing that in-house is going to be critical to be able to continue to grow the medical device market for us.
Greg: For sure. And we’re seeing lots of folks trying to—you need fuller inspection coverage, depending on the industries you serve, you need traceability, you need access to the good information, also important as the end-customers continue to demand more.
Gustavo: They do. But you know, as I tell the team and the team is well aware, we’re making product that goes into the human body, or is used to operate on the human body. This is critical stuff. Everything we do is critical, but even more so if we’re dealing with the human body is involved, right?
Greg: For sure.
Gustavo: Everybody’s understanding of that. I share videos with them, I share lab results. There’s a couple of projects and prototypes we did for customers, and they were for labs, so I share all that information with them to keep it fresh in their mind. Hey, here’s the end-user. This is why it’s so critical for us to produce a good quality product.
Greg: That’s awesome. I mean, connecting to the end application, also a great way to get your team thinking about bigger dimensions of the problem than maybe just the step or handful of steps that they ultimately work on in the production of that component. I think one of the themes that’s really evident to me, Gus, as we’ve gone through this conversation is, as I said earlier, number one, you perpetually invested in your own education and training, especially at times where that was really hard, young family, young children, calling you saying, “Hey, Dad, when are we going to spend some time together?” And really, you found a way to continue to make those investments, but also come up with, really, an approach that ultimately was incredibly meaningful to your children and to those all-important family relationships, which I think is a fantastic takeaway for folks in all industries, not just for entrepreneurs, but for folks in all sorts of industries and jobs out there.
I think the other thing is, you really chose to go broad, very early on, right? You didn’t see yourself as constrained to, “Well, I started here, and so that’s the only thing I’m going to think about.” You really connected the chain from the first time you, you know, set foot on a manufacturing floor, ultimately to more types of equipment, more types of processes, more steps of the operation, and then up to really the front office and the business side of the equation and I always think of those things is as talent stacks, right? If you can develop different talents, and then you can stack a set of talents, you become a very valuable, and very unique individual for, the industry that you happen to be in. What I find most fascinating about that, which I think this happens to ultimately every business owner or every entrepreneur, is that once you did all that, and then you got the best job that you ever got, the first thing you wanted to do was get rid of it [laugh] , right?
That’s always what happens because that’s sort of your cue, if you’re an entrepreneur, that I’ve now built my way up to all these different skills so that I could get that big job, that big responsibility, and that’s actually not why you worked third shift, and stepped out at, seven o’clock in the morning to go to school full-time, and sacrificed your nights and weekends. That investment was so that you could achieve whatever the end dream was that you had in mind. It wasn’t so you could have that big job in service of somebody else’s dream, right? Isn’t that where that frustration comes from?
Gustavo: Exactly right. One of the things that my grandmother and I always talked about is the sacrifices that happened before me can’t be in vain. There has to be a reason, right?
Greg: There you go. There you go. So Gus, I mean, just an incredible journey and an incredible connection, really, of what does it take, right? What does it really take, to start out at 15 years old, just get involved in the industry, start learning from dad, and get the skill set required to get to the point of having your own business? And some folks look at that and, could go, “Oh, wow, what, an overnight success.”
And meanwhile, there’s you in your head, thinking back 20 years ago to how hard it was to grind away, and pull on that next thread, to learn that next skill, to get trained in that next piece of engineering or piece of the process. I mean, so if you could go back in time, with everything that you’ve done to get where you are now, Gus, if you go back in time and talk to the 15-year-old Gus who first set foot on the shop floor, what advice would you give yourself?
Gustavo: Well, Greg, I tend to be very impatient. I’ve been that way my entire life. Actually, my mother used to make fun of me because every Christmas, when I was very young, I wouldn’t just, rip the wrapping; I’d tear that thing apart, right? I wanted to get to it. Being so impatient, I would tell myself, give it time.
You need the time to create the skill. I always wanted to jump to the very next thing, right? I know a little bit of this; what’s next? But give it time so you can build the skill up, so you can have the experience. And that foundation will lead to the next step that you’re going to be taking in life.
Greg: So, let it cook low and slow, right?
Gustavo: Exactly right. There’s a gentleman that I talked to recently, about three weeks ago, and I had not had a conversation with him since 2009. And he said, “Gus, I’m calling you to congratulate you on the business. I just heard that, you started your own business. Congratulations.” He said, “I got to give you some feedback, though. Back when you and I were working in 2009, I always used to think, ‘here’s a guy who thinks he can take it all on. Here’s a guy that just wants to take on the world and just wants to keep on going.’” And he said, “If I can be honest with you, I felt that at some point, you were just not going to make it.” He said, “Now, I’m actually working in the same position that I was working then, and you’ve continued to grow.” I told him, I said, “It doesn’t mean you can change it today.” Change your mindset. Change the glasses you use to view life, and you’ll get to this success. That feeling that I’m too old, or I can’t do it, or it’s not my time, and start making it your time.
Greg: That’s right.
Gustavo: Start doing those changes, change the recipe so you can bake a different cake. Because obviously the recipe you’re using for the cake isn’t working, so change that recipe. We can all make it. And along the way, if you get stuck, reach out. I’m more than willing to share whatever I’ve learned so that you can have success. And I need nothing from it other than to see other people reach success because that, to me, is rewarding.
Greg: I don’t think I could end it on a better note, Gus. You just did a fantastic job of wrapping up a lifetime full of lessons. Invest in your own education, define your own reality, be humble, be curious, and never stop. What a great set of things for young folks out there to hear.
Gustavo: It was great having a conversation with you today, Greg, and I was also looking forward to this conversation for quite some time, so I’m glad we’re able to make it happen.
Greg: Awesome. Really appreciate having you on the show, Gus, and wish you nothing but the best of luck as you continue to grow GC Machining Solutions, continue to realize that dream that’s been burning in the back of your mind for many, many years. So, great having you on Gus, and thanks so much.
Gustavo: Thank you.
Greg: Thank you for listening to Manufacturing Mavericks. If you’d like to learn more, listen to past episodes, or nominate a future Maverick to be on our show, visit mfgmavericks.com, and don’t forget to subscribe to and rate this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app.